The Enduring Mystery of Jack the Ripper

The
name 'Jack the Ripper' has become the most infamous in
the annals of murder. Yet, the amazing fact is that his
identity remains unproven today. In the years 1888-1891
the name was regarded with terror by the residents of
London's East End, and was known the world over. So shrouded
in myth and mystery is this story that the facts are hard
to identify at this remove in time. And it was the officers
of Scotland Yard to whom the task of apprehending the
fearsome killer was entrusted.

They may have failed, but they failed honourably, having
made every effort and inquiry in their power to free London
of the unknown terror.

Over the years the mystery has deepened to the degree
that the truth is almost totally obscured. Innumerable
press stories, pamphlets, books, plays, films, and even
musicals have dramatised and distorted the facts to such
a degree that the fiction is publicly accepted more than
the reality.

Suspects

Suffice to say genuine suspects are far fewer than the
prolific authors of the genre would have us believe. In
fact, to reduce them to only those with a genuine claim
having been nominated by contemporary police officers,
we are left with a mere four. They are;

Kosminski, a poor Polish Jew resident in Whitechapel;

Montague John Druitt, a 31 year old barrister and
school teacher who committed suicide in December 1888;

Michael Ostrog, a Russian-born multi-pseudonymous
thief and confidence trickster, believed to be 55 years
old in 1888, and detained in asylums on several occasions;

Dr Francis J. Tumblety, 56 Years old, an American
'quack' doctor, who was arrested in November 1888 for
offences of gross indecency, and fled the country later
the same month, having obtained bail at a very high
price.

The
first three of these suspects were nominated by Sir Melville Macnaghten,
who joined the Metropolitan Police as Assistant Chief Constable, second
in command of the Criminal Investigation Deptment (C.I.D.) at Scotland
Yard in June 1889. They were named in a report dated 23 February 1894,
although there is no evidence of contemporary police suspicion against
the three at the time of the murders. Indeed, Macnaghten's report contains
several odd factual errors.

Kosminski was certainly favoured by the head of the C.I.D. Dr. Robert
Anderson, and the officer in charge of the case, Chief Inspector Donald
Swanson. Druitt appears to have been Macnaghten's preferred candidate,
whilst the fact that Ostrog was arrested and incarcerated before the report
was compiled leaves the historian puzzling why he was included as a viable
suspect in the first place.

The fourth suspect, Tumblety, was stated to have been "amongst the suspects"
at the time of the murders and "to my mind a very likely one," by the
ex-head of the Special Branch at Scotland Yard in 1888, ex-Detective Chief
lspector John George Littlechild. He confided his thoughts in a letter
dated 23 September, 1913, to the criminological journalist and author
George R Sims.

For
a list of viable suspects they have not inspired any uniform confidence
in the minds of those well-versed in the case.

Indeed, arguments can be made against all of them being the culprit,
and no hard evidence exists against any of them. What is obvious is the
fact that the police were at no stage in a position to prove a case against
anyone, and it is highly unlikely a positive case will ever be proved.
If the police were in this position in 1888-1891, then what hope for the
enthusiastic modern investigator?

To clear the confusion for the new student of the case
we have to return to factual basics. Just who was 'Jack
the Ripper,' and what were the 'Whitechapel murders'?

The crimes

What has to be understood is the fact that the 'Ripper' murders and the
'Whitechapel murders' are not the same thing, although the latter does
include the 'Ripper' murders. So to set the scene, the list of the eleven
Whitechapel murders, (all of which at some stage have been looked upon
as 'Ripper' murders), was as follows:

Date

Victim

Circumstances

Tuesday
3 April 1888

Emma Elizabeth
Smith

Assaulted
and robbed in Osborn Street, Whitechapel.

Tuesday
7 August 1888

Martha
Tabram

George
Yard Buildings,
George Yard, Whitechapel.

Friday
31 August 1888

Mary Ann
Nichols

Buck's
Row, Whitechapel,

Saturday
8 September 1888

Annie Chapman

Rear Yard
at 29 Hanbury Street,
Spitalfields.

Sunday
30 September 1888

Elizabeth
Stride

Yard at
side of 40 Berner Street,
St Georges-in-the- East.

Sunday
30 September 1888

Catherine
Eddowes

Mitre Square,
Aldgate, City of London.

Friday
9 November 1888

Mary Jane
Kelly

13 Miller's
Court,
26 Dorset Street Spitalfields.

Thursday
20 December 1888

Rose Mylett

Clarke's
Yard,
High Street. Poplar.

Wednesday
17 July 1889

Alice McKenzie

Castle
Alley,
Whitechapel.

Tuesday
10 September 1889

Unknown
female torso

Found under
railway arch in Pinchin Street, Whitechapel,

Friday
13 February 1891

Frances
Coles

Under railway
arch, Swallow Gardens, Whitechapel.

Throat
cutting attended the murders of Nichols, Chapman, Stride,
Eddowes, Kelly, McKenzie and Coles. In all except the
cases of Stride and Mylett there was abdominal mutilation.
In the case of Chapman the uterus was taken away by the
killer; Eddowes' uterus and left kidney were taken; and
in Kelly's case, evidence suggests, the heart.

The murders were considered too much for the local Whitechapel
(H) Division C.I.D, headed by Detective Inspector Edmund
Reid, to handle alone. Assistance was sent from the Central
Office at Scotland Yard, after the Nichols murder, in
the persons of Detective Inspectors, Frederick George
Abberline, Henry Moore, and Walter Andrews, together with
a team of subordinate officers. Reinforcements were drafted
into the area to supplement the local men. After the Eddowes
murder the City Police, under Detective Inspector James
McWilliam, were also engaged on the hunt for the killer.

Every one of these murders remained unsolved, no person
was ever convicted of any of them. Thus It must be said
that we simply do not know which of them for certain were
the work of a single killer. Over the years, mainly as
a result of Macnaghten's beliefs, the 'Ripper'-victims
have been listed as

Nichols

Chapman

Stride

Eddowes

Kelly,

with Tabram having gained favour more recently as a possible
sixth in the opinion of some historians.

Non-Ripper murders

Certainly the evidence indicates that Smith was murdered
by a group of three young hoodlums. The police investigated
a suspicion that Tabram was murdered by a soldier. Mylett,
who was not even murdered according to the Assistant Commissioner
Robert Anderson, was probably strangled by a client.

McKenzie's wounds indicated yet a different killer.The
'Pinchin Street torso' was undoubtedly an exercise in
the disposal of a body, and Coles was possibly murdered
by a male companion, James Thomas Sadler, who was arrested
and, certainly for a while, suspected of being the Ripper.

The name

Almost certainly the one single reason for the enduring
appeal of this rather sordid series of prostitute murders
is the name Jack the Ripper. The name is easy to explain.
It was written at the end of a letter, dated 25 September,
1888, and received by the Central News Agency on 27 September,
1888. They, in turn, forwarded it to the Metropolitan
Police on 29 September.

The letter was couched in lurid prose and began "Dear
Boss......" It went on to speak of "That joke about Leather
Apron gave me real fits......'' ('Leather Apron' was a
John Pizer, briefly suspected at the time of the Chapman
murder). "I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping
them till I do get buckled..."; and so on in a similar
vein. The appended "trade name" of Jack the Ripper was
then made public and further excited the imagination of
the populace.

The two murders of 30 September 1888 gave the letter
greater importance and to underline it the unknown correspondent
again committed red ink to postcard and posted it on 1
October. In this communication he referred to himself
as 'saucy Jacky...' and spoke of the "double event......."
He again signed off as Jack the Ripper. The status of
this correspondence is still being discussed by modern
historians.

The message on the wall

Immediately after the Eddowes murder a piece of her bloodstained
apron was found in a doorway in Goulston Street, Whitechapel.
Above the piece of apron, on the brick fascia in the doorway,
was the legend, in chalk, "The Juwes are The men that
Will not be Blamed for nothing." A message from the murderer,
or simply anti-Semitic graffiti? Expert opinion is divided.

The hype

It was at this time that the panic was at its height
and the notoriety of the murders was becoming truly international,
appearing in newspapers from Europe to the Americas. Even
at this early stage the newspapers were carrying theories
as to the identity of the killer, including doctors, slaughterers,
sailors, and lunatics of every description.

A popular image of the killer as a 'shabby genteel' man
in dark clothing, slouch hat and carrying a shiny black
bag was also beginning to gain currency. The press, especially
the nascent tabloid papers, were having a field day. With
no Whitechapel murders in October there was still plenty
to write about. There were dozens of arrests of suspects
"on suspicion" (usually followed by quick release); there
was a police house to house search, handbills were circulated,
and Vigilance Committee members and private detectives
flooded the streets.

The discovery of a female torso in the cellars of the
new police building under construction at Whitehall added
to the air of horror on 2 October, 1888. The floodgates
to a deluge of copy cat 'Jack the Ripper' letters were
opened, and added to the problems of the police.

An unpleasant experience befell the Chairman of the Whitechapel
Vigilance Committee, builder George Lusk, on 16 October,
1888, when he received half a human kidney in a cardboard
box through the post. With this gruesome object was a
letter scrawled in a spidery band and addressed "from
Hell ....." It finished. "signed Catch me when you can
Mishter Lusk." The writer claimed to have fried and ate
the other half of the "kidne," which was "very nise."
The shaken Lusk took both kidney and letter to the police.
The police, and police surgeon felt it was probably a
hoax by a medical student, although others believed it
was part of Eddowes' missing organ.

Inquests fuel press speculation

Popular and lengthy inquests were held by Coroner Wynne
Baxter on the victims falling under his jurisdiction,
which was the majority of them, and he fuelled the press
coverage to fever pitch. He was not grudging in dishing
out his criticism of witnesses. By the time the murders
came to an end in 1891, the proprietors of the Working
Lads' Institute had had enough of the noisy, unruly, proceedings
and informed Baxter that he could find a different venue
for his next inquest.

The murder of Mary Kelly, in November 1888, was accompanied
by mutilation of such ferocity that it beggared description,
and, for once, left the press short of superlatives. The
murder had been committed on the day of the investiture
of the new Mayor of London and the celebrations were soon
overshadowed by the news of the Ripper's latest atrocity.

The Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, Sir Charles
Warren, resigned at the time of the Kelly murder, after
a long history of dispute with the Home Office, and was
replaced by James Monro.

The panic subsides

After the Kelly murder, and many more abortive arrests,
the panic began to die down a little and a more quiescent
atmosphere began to reign. In early 1889 lnspector Abberline
left, to take on other cases, and the inquiry was handed
over to Inspector Henry Moore. His last extant report
on the murders is dated 1896, when another 'Jack the Ripper'
letter was received. There were brief flurries of press
activity and wild suggestions that the 'Ripper' had returned
on the occasions of the subsequent murders. However, Sadler
was the last serious suspect arrested, and his seafaring
activities obviated him from blame for the 1888 murders.

It will be seen from the foregoing that this is a mystery,
when stripped of its fictional trappings, which provides
all the raw material the imaginative writer or armchair
detective could hope for. So popular is the subject that
meticulous and scholarly research is carried out on the
background of all the characters named in the story. Detailed
plans are drawn and Victorian census returns and post
office directories are consulted. The newspapers of the
time are trawled for every scrap of information. Every
minor detail revealed and added is hailed as a major triumph
of research, sometims even justifying a book.

The files and other source material

New Scotland Yard have no files on the murders, nor details
of the inquiry. The documents have been transfered over
to the Public Record Office at Ruskin Avenue, Kew.

They are:

MEPO 1/48

Commissioner's letters, confidential and
private, 1867-91.

MEPO 1/54

Out Ietters, 1890-1919.

MEPO 1/55

Letters to Home Office etc., 1883-1904.

MEPO 1/65

Letters from Receiver to Home Office etc.,
1868-91.

MEPO 2/227

Police reinforcements for Whitechapel after
Pinchin St. murder 1891.

MEPO 31140

Files on each of the Whitechapel murders
(that on Emma Smith missing).

There is much material to be seen in these files though probably as much
again is now missing, some as a result of petty pilfering and others were
simply destroyed in past years.

Many books have been written on the subject, and they vary in quality.
Some concern individual suspects, whilst others are aimed more for the
student and researcher, and contain most of the facts available, thus
avoiding expensive and time-consuming research.

However, the serious historian is directed to the primary Metropolitan
Police (MEPO) sources listed above, as well as the Home Office files which
are also available at the Record Office.

The two recommended reference books are:-

The Jack the Ripper.A-Z, by Paul Begg, Martin Fido, and Keith
Skinner, published by Headline, 1996. (Still in print).

The Complete History of Jack the Ripper, by Philip Sugden, published
by Robinson, 1995, (Still in print).